“It wouldn’t be the winter holiday season without the fantasy train display in the East Gallery, which chugs along more than 800 feet of track through imaginative structures created with plant materials. Explore the “World’s Fair” and see many familiar creations that resulted from a long history of public exhibitions.”

“However, after much work and renovation ou rHoliday Train will once again be on view in the Main Hall. The train features 3 G-Scale LGB Steam Locomotives running on 200 feet of track. The train is to scale at 1:22 the size of an actual train. A mountain landscape with 40 new structures, 25 trucks and vintage cars, 100 trees along with people, dogs and cats make for a realistic setting. This year’s festive setting will be open from 10am-7pm daily for our guests to enjoy. Happy Holidays”

Of course a trip to Union Station is usually worth it in its own right, even more so around the holidays.

OLD VIENNA TRAIN STATION
The Northern Virginia Model Railroaders have a large layout at the old Vienna W&OD train station that gets displayed throughout the year on a limited basis:
“Open House visitors include people of all ages who enjoy watching railroad activities that realistically depict an actual railroad that existed in North Carolina in the 1950′s. That railroad was called the Western North Carolina (WNC) and every hill, town, building, locomotive, rail car, and industry on our layout is modeled after those places and things as they looked in that era. Well, almost everything; we must admit that to satisfy popular demand, an occasional sighting can be made of Thomas the Tank Engine and a few of his friends chugging around among the bigger steam and diesel locomotives.”

The Vienna train station is only open on December 2 (6 p.m. to 9 p.m.) and December 15 (1 p.m. to 5 p.m.)

The Town of Vienna, Va.’s preeminent historian Mayo Sturdevant Stuntz, aged 97 years, has died. Stuntz was a lifelong resident and co-author of the book “This Was Vienna, Virginia” that was published in the late 1980s. He visited my social studies class and shared with us his memories of the town.

My brother Christopher, who provided a photograph of the book included here added “the town of Vienna will owe him a debt of gratitude for generations to come.”
FROM VIENNA PATCHRemembering Vienna’s ‘Unofficial Historian’

My two years in Vienna Little League (AA Senators and AAA Red Sox) were not terribly distinguished, but I enjoyed them. A big reason I was able to do so was through the efforts of Fred Crabtree, who died recently at age 96. Vienna Little League is now entering its 60th year and first without Crabtree.

I don’t recall any direct experience with him, but I remember playing at Crabtree Field one of the three diamonds in Yeonas Park. I think I also remember a Vienna Times story about the push for sound barriers along Interstate 66 next to Yeonas with somebody, probably Crabtree, holding his ears. If my memory is accurate, Yeonas was built about 4 years before I-66 was constructed right behind it. In addition to the argument for keeping out traffic noise, it was argued that sound walls would keep foul balls from going into traffic. Even then I knew that was a dubious argument, but nets were put up initially. Sound walls were eventually installed.

As an Army engineer stationed in the Pacific theater, Crabtree helped build a baseball diamond for his fellow soldiers in Okinawa, Japan. Each day, he would set up the field. Each night, the Japanese would bomb it.

“Every night, they would drop a string of bombs right on the damn field,” said Crabtree with a laugh. “They would drop a whole string.”

Although the field wasn’t perfect, the soldiers didn’t have proper uniforms and the professional baseball players in the service monopolized playing time, that baseball field was a piece of home for the troops. That piece of land was important.

Norm’s Beer and Wine Customers Fight Non-Compete Clause – Vienna Patch
When I still lived in Vienna, Norm’s Beer & Wine was my go-to for suds. The service was strong and owner Norm Yow was personable. His shop has created a devoted following, but his days at the Danor Plaza location he’s been in since 1998 could be numbered. His lease is through 2013, but the arrival of Fresh Market in the what I believe is the old Minnesota Fabrics space (before that, A&P) could push him out. Norm’s landlord, Finmarc offered Fresh Market, which sells beer & wine, a non-compete clause in their lease.

For Vienna man, case of notorious spy Hanssen hit too close to home – The Fairfax Times
Brian Kelley, who lived on Talisman Drive outside of Vienna, Va., was originally thought to be the spy that was actually Robert Hanssen. The FBI was 99.9% sure that Kellly was “Ramon Garcia” and for 4 years 2 years suspended from the CIA, he lived with the knowledge that he was a target of the investigation. Hanssen’s arrest vindicated Kelly, who suggests the FBI did not learn much from the experience.

Okay, I need to read about book about Hanssen now, which one is the best?

I am sure my family and friends from the Wolf Trap Elementary school district in and near Vienna will be interested to know that the house the Robert Hanssen lived in is up for sale, over 10 years after his arrest for espionage. The 5 bedroom house at 9414 Talisman Drive could be yours for $725,000. I don’t know why the government did not confiscate it, but then again, they gave that traitor a sweetheart deal and he went deaf and dumb once it was sealed. Presumably, all the bugs, recording devices (including the ones he set up to record himself and his wife) have been removed.

Hanssen got busted about a month after I moved out of Vienna. A few years after I moved out of the Riverhouse complex in Pentagon City, Russian nationals got arrested for spying in the building that my friend Fritz had just moved out of the month before. I just assume that someone will be busted after I move out of my condo complex in Alexandria’s West End.

As far as I know, there have not been any espionage arrests in my original hometown of Morris Township, NJ or in State College and Hazleton, Pa.* where I lived while at Penn State…yet.

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IT SEEMS A LOT MORE REAL now that we have seen the team in action. However, some are still not really convinced that after so much waiting, D.C. baseball is finally happening. I understand where they are coming from, I think I will know it is all official when I see Jose Guillen or Cristan Guzman saying “where your job is your credit” in an Easterns Automotive TV spot.